CORAL GABLES, Fla.—Somehow, this became about one player. This magnificent day, this best day in a tired, tumultuous first year for Al Golden at Miami, became about the one player the Canes didn’t have.

Instead of the enormity of what they just accomplished.

“Hey, let’s not forget,” Canes offensive coordinator Jedd Fisch said as the staff was filing out of a meeting room. “We just had a great day.”

That, everyone, is the understatement of the recruiting season.

Considering the baggage on board, the unflattering aura glaring off the program like those neon lights in South Beach, Golden and the Canes did the unthinkable on National Signing Day: They landed a top 10 recruiting class with one foot in the NCAA hoosegow.

That’s why this one player was so important. Not because of who he is, but because who Golden is—and the plan he has for Miami. Getting a signed letter of intent from that last player would’ve completed a mission that began the day after Signing Day 2011. A journey that should have imploded long ago.

“Nothing,” Golden says, “is preventing us from moving forward.”

Not even a sleazy, jock-sniffing booster or the clueless yet contemptible NCAA.

This is what happens when everyone buys in and believes. When the power of what eventually will be overwhelms the reality of what is.

So, yeah, Golden took it personally when the one that got away didn’t fall in line. And that, somehow, was the worst thing that happened on a day that could have looked so much worse

This is what every Miami coach faced in every living room of every recruit over the last six months:

— A looming NCAA investigation of former booster Nevin Shapiro, whose alleged violations of all things NCAA are so complete—sex, money, hookers, other gifts/benefits—it’s the most damning NCAA case ever assembled.

— Signing with Miami meant signing with a university that hid from its own head coach the depth and breadth of the NCAA investigations. When the allegations were first uncovered in August by Yahoo, Golden was nine months into his job and knew nothing of the slimeball Shapiro.

— Before the end of the 2011 season, Miami officials decided to proactively sanction the program with a bowl ban—a clear indication they understood something big is coming from the NCAA.

“That’s all they had against us,” said Brennan Carroll, Miami’s tight end coach and recruiting coordinator.

And he was serious.

Want to know why Miami was so successful and how the Canes somehow turned grime into gold? Instead of avoiding the negative, the staff prioritized the positive.

That’s right, as corny and contrived as it sounds, Golden and his staff sold Miami’s championship tradition, academic success (No. 5 graduation rate), NFL history and ability to play now. The same thing they sold the year before and other staffs have sold for three decades.

This staff just did it better than any other.

In Miami’s long history of winning on the field and in recruiting, there has been no bigger victory than what Golden and his staff pulled off this recruiting season. Bigger than the five national titles, bigger than those Heisman Trophies, bigger than all of those All-Americans.

Not only did the Canes reel in a program-defining class of 32 players (seven count toward last year’s class), they kept rivals Florida and Florida State out of talent-rich Broward and Dade counties. The Gators signed two players from Broward and Dade; the Seminoles signed none.

No player in that critical pipeline—the area former Canes coach Howard Schnellenberger once dubbed “the state of Miami”—was more important than Tracy Howard. The nation’s No. 1 cornerback recruit was down to UM, UF and FSU, and sat in front of a national television audience Wednesday morning to announce his decision.

Think about that: the elite of the elite, a player all of the Big Three desperately wanted, proudly proclaimed he was signing with Miami. Warts and all.

If that weren’t enough, his teammate Malcolm Lewis—the No. 1 wideout in the state of Florida also choosing between the Big Three—chose Miami, too.

“We all know what other people were saying with the negative recruiting, and there’s no way to control that,” Golden said. “But we can control what we say, the message we send, the philosophy we sell.”

FROM SI

And that’s what’s lost in the process. We’re dealing with teenagers, with young football players who before they play a down of football outside the adoration that is high school football, are dressed in suits and playing guess which hat I’m putting on my head. On national television.

The more these kids—make no mistake, they’re kids—stray in the social media/look at me world, the more they need a distinct, detailed plan to bring them back in the fold. The same plan that Golden laid down on the desk of former athletic director Kirby Hocutt when he interviewed for the job.

The same plan that sat on the table in the War Room, as the drama with Howard was playing out and Golden was pounding his fist on the table and screaming, “Come on, Tracy, don’t be afraid! Don’t be afraid.”

Four hours later, after going for a run and trying to decompress from no sleep the night before and agonizing over every letter of intent, Golden was back in the War Room for the national television moment of the one that got away.

The announcement was made, the room deflated and Golden got up and walked out. Yet even the one that got away can’t overshadow the takeaway from this day:

If Miami can recruit this well with everything stacked against it, what happens when Golden starts winning big and more recruits follow?